A few months back, I was contacted by Home Depot to try out a product they were carrying called the Mighty Mato
Tomato plant kit. The plant kit comes with 3 grafted tomato plant seedlings. The plants are grafted onto healthy plant stock.
The plants came in the mail in this neat packaging. Inside was a Brandywine, A Sweet Million (cherry tomato) and a Big Beef seedling. The plant seedlings looked pretty good for being shipped to my house. These must have been in transit for at least 2-3 days! They were very healthy looking but a little thirsty.
I planted the seedlings and within a week, they too off. Here is the Sweet Million already tripled in size after about a week and a half.
Unfortunately, the Brandywine didn't do as well. When I planted these, New York City was having one pretty hot heat wave. The Brandywine seedling didn't survive the relentless heat. I don't think it has anything to do with the product, but the 90+F heat for days on end just was too much for this seedling. I actually lost lots of other plants because of the heat wave.
The Big Beef however did really well. It also tripled in size after a week and a half.
One month later and the plant has grown really large and lush. This is the Big Beef. It is so healthy and lush!
And the Sweet Million has grown into a giant healthy bushy plant. It has grown all over this tomato cage. The plant is giant, with lots of blooms!
Three months later, and look at these beauties! The Big Beef really lives up to it's name. They are big nice sized tomatoes. There are also so many growing on this plant.
And the tomato plants are easily 5 feet tall. They have grown taller than the tomato cage! Can you believe this is just one plant???
So many fruit on the Sweet Million. Patiently waiting for these babies to turn color.
Another grouping of Big Beef tomatoes. I like fried green tomatoes, so these might get that treatment. Yum!
And more Sweet Millions. Overall these plants were so healthy and easy to grow. I would definitely recommend Mighty Mato tomato plant kit for any beginner or seasoned gardener!
Note: I was given Mighty Mato free of charge to try out and review. No compensation was provided for this product review. The above is my honest opinion after testing this product.
I've never heard of a grafted tomato before....
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Looks good.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. They look good, hope they tasted yummy!
ReplyDeleteSo here's my question....why would you graft perfectly good, strong growing tomatoes onto other root stock? It's not like the grafted varieties are "challenged" in any way...I have grown them myself. (Perhaps the Brandywine did not like the grafting job, rather than the NYC heat?) Unless perhaps the money making angle is to cut multiple slips of the chosen varieties and graft them onto root stock, thereby getting "more" plants (providing the root stock comes cheap?) Or maybe it's a gimmick designed to lead NYC gardeners on...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, hope they taste good when they ripen!
I was confused as well, Melanie? I actually found this tomato graft thingy more like a science project gimmick. I had 4 or 5 pink brandywines this year in my first year growing them in Brooklyn from seed. The pink brandywine tomato plants arent known for their large yields...
DeleteThe idea behind grafting on the Mighty Matos the way I understand it is to use a type of root stock that is extremely hardy and resistant to known tomato soil borne pathogens and to graft varieties of tomatoes with preferable traits. You do get larger yields from the grafted plants, and yes they do cost more, but i would certainly prefer a little more money out of pocket for the Mighty Mato than to see my efforts be for naught as a result of something in the soil. Yes I know there are non grafted varieties the are "resistant" to the usual soil related diseases but I have had mixed results planting these as well. Mighty Mato has more varieties available online than you can find at the local big box garden center and they're worth looking into if you like to experiment with other types of tomatoes. Not sure why you would feel this a gimmick, although I imagine Luther Burbank faced the same skepticism early in his career too.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to bear in mind when planting the Mighty Mato is not to bury the graft in soil as any roots that develop above the graft as a result are not disease resistant and provide a conduit for those soil related maladies to enter the plant structure, thereby defeating the purpose of the grafted plant altogether......